NAYPITAW (MYANMAR): Myanmar Army imposed state of emergency in the country after government of elected Myanmar leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was toppled.
Aung San Suu Kyi and others others were arrested by Army claiming that it carried out the detentions in response to “election fraud”. Soldiers were seen taking positions at city hall in Yangon and mobile internet data and phone services were disrupted.
Aung San Suu Kyi-led NLD’s landslide election win in November last was viewed as a referendum on her fledgling democratic government.
Besides Aung San Suu Kyi other leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party were arrested in early morning raids.
The army said it had carried out the detentions in response to “election fraud”, handing power to military chief Min Aung Hlaing and imposing a state of emergency for one year, according to a statement on a military-owned television station. A military spokesman did not answer phone calls seeking further comment.
Phone lines to the capital Naypyitaw and the main commercial centre of Yangon were not reachable, and state TV went off air hours before parliament had been due to sit for the first time since the NLD’s landslide election win in November, viewed as a referendum on Suu Kyi’s fledgling democratic government.
Soldiers took up positions at city hall in Yangon and mobile internet data and phone services in the NLD stronghold were disrupted, residents said. Internet connectivity also had fallen dramatically, monitoring service NetBlocks said.
Suu Kyi, Myanmar President Win Myint and other NLD leaders had been “taken” in the early hours of the morning, said a party spokesman Myo Nyunt.
“I want to tell our people not to respond rashly and I want them to act according to the law,” he said, adding that he expected to be arrested himself.
The detentions came after days of escalating tension between the civilian government and the military that stirred fears of a coup in the aftermath of the election.
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